DPD Germany has developed a digital parcel label that will enable customers to prepare theirparcels for shipping without having to print a label from early next year.
It expects to become the first service provider in the German parcels market to offer the QRCode-based service when it launches in spring 2015, and said the service option would be free ofany additional costs.
“In an increasingly digitalised world, printed paper is losing more and more of its role. As aresult, DPD intends to digitalise parcel shipping as much as possible,” DPD CEO Boris Winkelmann,explained.
“Nowadays, many households manage very well without having their own printer. In addition,shipping parcels is a lot more convenient and flexible when customers are not dependent on physicalparcel labels.”
So far, business and private shippers have been able to stamp and pay for their parcels on theonline portal dpdwebpaket.de, which is cheaper than paying at a DPD parcel shop. After making theonline payment, shippers receive a PDF parcel label, which they need to print out, cut out andstuck on the parcel.
From spring 2015, all small-scale business and private shippers who pay for their parcels viathe ‘DPD Web Parcel’ online platform will receive a mobile QR code. The parcel can then be droppedoff quickly and conveniently at a DPD parcel shop without a physical parcel label.
DPD said all of its parcel shops were equipped with modern handheld scanners that can capturethe QR code. After handing in the parcel, the customer receives an e-mail confirmation indicatingthe parcel label number.
The company said that for small-scale shippers who sell goods on C2C platforms such as eBay,parcel shipping with the digital parcel label “will become especially convenient, as DPD willprovide interfaces which can be integrated directly into these portals”. This will enable theshippers to book a digital DPD parcel label on the platform itself, thus saving themselves severaloperational stages.
“The entire shipping process can be initiated without leaving the individual e-commerce platformthey are on,” DPD said. With DPD focusing very much on digital innovation, the mobile QR code canbe exported, if needed, to the widely-used apps Passbook (iOS) or PassWallet (Android).
In a further development stage, DPD also plans to offer parcel labels in the form of a QR codefor return shipments. Until now, return parcel labels have only been available as a PDF document tobe printed out or have been supplied by the original shipper.
Along with the digital parcel label as an additional option for shippers who wish to exploittheir digital possibilities to the fullest, the existing options such as printing out the parcellabel themselves or paying for the parcel at the DPD parcel shop will remain, the companystressed.
And even if customers will soon be able to implement the shipping process entirely without aparcel label, the parcels themselves will still continue to reach the consignee with a conventionalparcel label, DPD said. “At the DPD ParcelShop a so-called ‘mini-label’ is stuck on the parcel andis then scanned. A physical parcel label is then automatically generated and attached at the DPDdepot.”
According to a German statistics portal Statista, there are many more smartphone users (40.4million) than private households which have a printer (29.34 million), compared to only 24 millionsmart phone users in 2012.
